The Silk Road. We have a hazy mental image: a lone traveler carrying silk on a camel moves along a desert. Where exactly is he going and what goods is he carrying? This book offers concrete answers based on newly discovered documents preserved in the sands of the Taklamakan Desert. It is amazing
what has been dug up, and how the new materials - both documents and artifacts - radically challenge our understanding of the Silk Road. Historians have only recently begun to piece together and make sense of these materials, which give a far clearer picture of actual Silk Road.
Placing
these documentary finds at the heart of the narrative, this book also tells the story of the different explorers who found these documents, and it teases out the implications of these documents for our understanding of the Silk Road. (We learn, for example, that the Silk "Road" was not really a
road, and that no one used the term "Silk Road" in the past.) The book focuses on the seven most important Silk Road sites that have produced document and objects from the Silk Road. Six (Niya, Kucha, Turfan, Dunhuang, Khotan, and Xi'an) are located in northwest China; the seventh, Samarkand, is in
modern Uzbekistan.
This college edition includes a selection of excerpted primary sources in each chapter. The range is enormous: memoirs of medieval Chinese monks and modern explorers, letters written by women, descriptions of towns, language-learning materials for traveling monks, and
contracts, among others. Instructors can select the documents they find most interesting to discuss in class; students can use these materials write papers. Many of these are difficult to find, and the author has checked all the translations to enhance their readability.
The college
edition also includes a new final chapter that examines the Silk Road during the period of Mongol rule (to c. 1400 CE).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Documents:
- 1 A Walk through the Taklamakan, Charles Blackmore, 1995
- 2 A Caravan in 1895, Sven Hedin, 1925
- 3 The Han Emperor Speaks with the Explorer Zhang Qian, Ban Gu, 111 BCE
- 4a-b Documents About Sogdian Envoys
from the Xuanquan Fort, 52, 39 BCE
- 5 The Kingdom of Da Qin, Fan Ye, 445 CE
- 6 Greek Description of the Lands East of India, Periplus, First Century CE
- 7 Pliny the Elder on the Country of Seres and the Silkworm, circa 77 CE
1. At the Crossroads of Central Asia: The Kingdom of
Kroraina
Documents:
- 8 The Niya Site in 1901, Aurel Stein,1907 Page #
- 9 The Niya Site in 1993, Charles Blackmore,1995
- 10 The Kroraina and Jingjue Kingdoms, Ban Gu, 111
- 11a-h Local Life in a Silk Road Community as seen in the Kharoshti Documents, circa 250-350
2.
Gateway to the Languages of the Silk Road: Kucha and the Kizil Caves
Documents:
- 12 Sven Hedin's Account of his 1899 Boat Trip, 1925
- 13 How the Germans Removed Paintings, Albert von le Coq, 1928
- 14 The Jataka Tale of How the Monkey King Saved His Band, Fifth Century CE
- 15
The Punyavan Jataka Tale, Fifth-Sixth Centuries CE
- 16 The Invasion of Kucha by General Lü Guang, Li Fang, 984
- 17 The Biography of Kumarajiva, Fang Xueling, 644
3. Midway Between China and Iran: Turfan
Documents:
- 18 Xuanzang's Journey out of China, Huili, 649
- 19 The
Astana Graveyard in 1915, Aurel Stein,1928
- 20a-c The Real World Legal System in the Turfan Documents
- 21a-c The Underworld Court System in the Turfan Documents
- 22a-d The Tang Code, Zhangsun Wuji, 653
4. Homeland of the Sogdians, the Silk Road Traders: Samarkand and
Sogdiana
Documents:
- 23a-c The Sogdian Ancient Letters, Nicholas Sims-Williams (trans.), ca. 310
- 24 The Mount Mugh Marriage Contract and the Bride's Script, 710
- 25 The Fall of Devashtich's Fortress at Mount Mugh, Al-Tabari, 923
- 26 Xuanzang's Description of Sogdian Ways,
646
- 27 The Kingdom of Sogdiana, Liu Xu, 945
5. The Cosmopolitan Terminus of the Silk Road: Historic Chang'an, Modern-day Xi'an
Documents:
- 28a-c Epitaphs for the Two Sogdian Headmen An Jia and Shi Wirkak, 579
- 29 Christianity in China: The Nestorian Stele of Xi'an, 781
-
30 A Record Book of Accounts from a Tang-Dynasty Pawn Shop, 662-689
- 31 The Lament of the Lady of Qin, A Poem about Chang'an in 881
6. The Time Capsule of Silk Road History: The Dunhuang Caves
Documents:
- 32 Aurel Stein's Negotiations at Dunhuang, 1912
- 33 A Hebrew Prayer
preserved in the Library Cave, 800-1000
- 34 A Manichean Hymn from the Library Cave, 800-1000
- 35 A Christian Hymn from the Library Cave, 800-1000
- 36 The Zhang Yichao Transformation Text, after 857
- 37a-b Women's Lives in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries
7. Entryway into
Xinjiang for Buddhism and Islam: Khotan
Documents:
- 38 Xuanzang's Description of Khotan, Huili, 649
- 39 The Pilgrim-monk Faxian's Description of Khotan, 401
- 40 The Book of Zambasta, circa 500
- 41 A Khotanese Contract Governing the Use of Irrigation Water, circa 700
- 45
The Second Jewish-Persian Letter, circa 790
- 46 A Khotanese-Sanskrit Phrasebook, Tenth Century CE
- 47 A Khotanese Account of Expenditures, Tenth Century CE
8. A New Route through the Grasslands: Beijing
Documents:
- 48 Pope Innocent's Letters to the Mongols, 1245
- 49 The
Mongol Khan's Reply to the Pope's Letters of 1245
- 50 John of Piano Carpini's Description of the Mongols, 1246
- 51 The Religious Debate at Möngke's Court, 1254
- 52 The Armenian King's Report about William of Rubruck, after 1259
- 53 Rabban Sauma's Account of France, circa
1300
- 54 Marco Polo's Account of Beijing, 1299
- 55 Marco Polo's Route South of Beijing, 1299
Conclusion: The History of the Overland Routes through Central Asia
Art Credits
Index
There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.
Valerie Hansen is Professor of history at Yale University. Her books include The Open Empire: A History of China 1600, Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts, 600-1400, Changing Gods in Medieval China, 1127-1276, and, with Kenneth R. Curtis, Voyages in
World History.
Writing History - William Kelleher Storey and Towser Jones
The Silk Road - Valerie Hansen
